GOATESS - II Purgatory Under New Management (2016) CDdigi

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Appearances at the prestigious ROADBURN and HEAVY DAYS IN DOOMTOWN festivals, more touring with BARABBAS, SERPENT VENOM and IRON VOID, bass player problems… A lot has happened in the GOATESS camp ever since the release of their self-titled debut in the summer of 2013 but having gone through thick and thin, this is a rejuvenated and even more focused version of the band which is about to unleash their sophomore album ‘Purgatory Under New Management’.

“After all those shows, things kind of stagnated for a bit” admits now their legendary vocalist and former SAINT VITUS and COUNT RAVEN frontman Chritus Linderson. “To the point we ached to do something, so we decided to go into the studio again. This album is the result of that frustration and hardship during that limbo meantime.” Last year, GOATESS parted ways with their former four-stringer Findus. For a while, Izmo Hedlund (former TERRA FIRMA drummer and currently in ATLANTIC TIDE) replaced him “but sadly, he had other obligations at an early stage and was prevented to commit further.” Recently, although he lives in southern Sweden whereas the rest of the band is in Stockholm, they’ve hired Peter Wallberg from VOID MOON and ASSASSIN’s BLADE as their new permanent bass player.

Satisfied with how ‘Goatess’ had turned out, the band decided to once again locked themselves up in March 2015 in Reflections Sounds studio nearby Stockholm with Tomas Roenberg and Glen Ericksson at the helm. While circumstances beyond their control delayed the mixing stage for a while, Chritus says that the result “does live up to its title”, inspired by the impression that “the Catholic Church had simply removed the whole idea of ‘purgatory’ from their belief and scriptures for whatever reason. Whether this is the truth of the matter I haven’t bothered to check up on” he chuckles. “Still, I just found it humorous thinking if we were the ones taking over since leadership supposedly vacant. A friend of ours actually came up with the title - so we nicked it with her blessing. It gave me a great lyrical freedom as almost anything could be written and still fit into the frame of things.”

At nearly 65 minutes, ‘Purgatory Under New Management’ is as epic as its predecessor yet different. Far more psychedelic sounding, its eight songs portray a band not afraid of expanding their horizons and minds beyond the mere ‘doom’ or ‘stoner’ tags, heading for something that is both atmospheric and progressive in spirit, even if you’ll feel in suspension somewhere between the moon and the sun one moment and assaulted with a ton of brick the next. And of course, you’ve got Linderson unmistakable voice, a shaman on his own right, preaching to all us sinners to repent before it’s too late.

1. Moth To Flame
2. Purgatory Under New Management
3. Murphy Was An Optimist
4. Crocodilians And Other Creepy Crawling Shhh...
5. Shadowland
6. Silent War
7. Wrath Of God
8. Good Moaning